Code Halloween
by Taylor9515
Summary: The Lyoko Warriors can't take anymore stress when their greuella group doubles and their worlds collide. Literally! Should the new student remove his eyepatch and reveal his well-kept secret to his new friends or give them a reason to mistrust him.
1. Enter Alan

"You will love it here, Alan," said his mother. "You'll see."

"I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends here at Kadic," said his father.

_Trust them_, said the Voice in Alan's head._ I can assure you that you will have a great time._

I doubt it, thought Alan Kimyōna as he was shepherded through the gates to his new school. His parents had had to move to France to find jobs. They couldn't leave him at his old school in Japan because all his relatives had either moved away or passed on. But they were caring parents who didn't want their son to be shifted from school to school every time their jobs relocated them. Obviously, they thought the best option was to enroll him into a boarding school. Alan despised this decision because now he couldn't even see his parents every day, the last of the people he knew.

"I understand that you just moved here from Japan," said Mr. Delmas, the principal of the school. "We have another Japanese family attending Kadic Academy. If you think it would help your son feel at home, I can introduce their youngest student."

"That would be very helpful, thank you," said Mrs. Kimyōna.

A few minutes later, a young boy showed up from the lunchroom. The principal held him by the shoulder. "This is Hiroki Ishiyama. Hiroki this is Alan Kimyōna. He will be in your P.E. and art classes. I would like you to give him a tour of the school. Mr. and Mrs. Kimyōna, if you could follow me we will complete the enrollment paperwork."

Alan watched his parents follow the principal to his office, feeling as if his fat was being sealed for the worse. He then turned away to follow his tour guide.

"So Alan, How long have you been wearing an eye patch?"

"All my life, so about 11 years."

"Why?"

"Don't ask. Can I go to the dorms? I want to know where I'm sleeping tonight."

"Which room?" They were on their way across the campus.

"37A."

"You're dorming with Jeremy?" Hiroki looked shocked.

"Belpois? Yes."

Hiroki was confused. "He's in the 9th grade."

"So am I. I've skipped three grades."

They arrived at the building that would serve as Alan's home for the next nine months of torture. Hiroki left to finish the rest of his lunch while Alan went upstairs to find his new bedroom. Alone again, Alan thought, or as alone as I'm ever going to be. He came up to his room and knocked five times.

"Come in," said a familiar voice.

Alan opened the door to look into his parents' faces. There was a fold-out bed and a pile of his boxes squeezed in the corner of the room. Might as well put up a neon light that displayed the word 'INTRUSIVE'. Other than the things around the room, there was no sign of his roommate.

"Did you have fun touring the school?" asked his father.

"Not especially."

"We should be off. We can't be late to our first day at work. I hope you have a great time." His mother bent down and gave Alan a quick kiss on the forehead before walking out the door.

"Do well in class; be safe; have fun. And don't forget our little secret." His father tapped Alan's eye patch before handing him the keys to the dorm and following Alan's mother out the door. He was gone, leaving his only son with his Voice, an empty room, and a feeling of loneliness that deepened the depression of losing his old friends at his old school.

_Don't worry_, spoke the Voice, _This is a great school. I should know. I taught here once_.

Stirred out of his depression enough to be curious, he asked the room, "When?"

_Up until about 11 years ago_.

"Around the time I was born?"

_Yes_.

A question popped into his head that was so obvious, he wondered why he hadn't asked it before. "How did you get into my head, Mr. Hopper?"


	2. Alan Meets the Warriors

"Morning, Einstein."

Odd shook Jeremy into a state of semi-consciousness. Jeremy sat up slowly. An imprint of his laptop's keyboard showed faintly on his forehead. He then changed his mind and lied his head back down on his computer. "5 more minutes," he complained.

"Hurry," Ulrich whispered into the brainiac's ear, "Aelita says that if you don't meet her in the courtyard in five minutes, she'll forget her date with you and go to the party with Odd!"

"No!"

Jeremy leaped up and tripped over the bench of the lunch table. The rest of the students at lunch laughed for a minute while Jeremy struggled to get back up, and then turned back to eating and gossiping. Ulrich put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from running off to meet his crush where she wouldn't be.

"I was kidding, Jeremy, geez. No need to beat the long jump world record." He aided his embarrassed friend back to his seat. "Did you finally find the courage to ask Aelita out?"

Jeremy blushed even darker at the mention of her name. "Yes," he said almost inaudibly.

Yumi laughed. "Well, did you know that there is something called a bed? It was invented so that a person could have something soft and comfortable to sleep on. And a pillow was made for the same reason. I don't think you have ever seen one and a metal bench and laptop don't seem to fulfill that requirement,"

"I know that," said Jeremy in mid yawn, "But this video isn't going to make itself. I'm not even half done yet." His head was already on its way down.

"You would work faster and more efficiently on it if you sleep more often," said Ulrich, "not to mention more likely to survive afterwards. I'll help you to your bed before you nod off into your soup."

The two left the lunchroom, Ulrich taking the laptop's place as the pillow. They passed Jim on the way to the dorms. Ulrich had to fill in and tell their gym teacher that Jeremy didn't get enough sleep the night before. As a reward Jim picked Jeremy up and helped take him to the dorms. Ulrich took the room key out of his friend's pocket and unlocked the door for them. Jim placed Jeremy's limp form on his bed; he had fallen to sleep in Jim's arms. Jim then left the room.

Ulrich was about to do the same when he saw something unusual. There was a foldout bed with someone on it. The person he was looking at had not made a sound or moved at all. Ulrich almost didn't notice him, which was hard to believe, because the kid seemed out of place. He looked almost like a vampire. He was wearing black elevator shoes and blue jeans. His shirt was short-sleeved and black, with a red symbol on the front. He had long, blood red hair the same shade as his shirt. His face was set in an almost permanent scowl of disappointment, and his right eye was the deep gray of a storm cloud. His most peculiar feature was his left eye, which was covered by a black eye patch. Overall, he looked like someone who was used to being alone.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Alan Kimyōna, and I live here."

Ulrich laughed openly. "No seriously, why are you here?"

"I skipped three grades. That's why I'm roomed with you."

"Oh. Well, if you're going to live here, you should know that I'm not your roommate. Einstein is," He gestured to Jeremy, who was deep in his slumber. "I'm Ulrich Stern." He held out a hand.

"It's nice to meet you," Alan said, accepting the handshake.

"Do you want to head to lunch?"

"Sure."

During the 5 minutes it took to walk from the dormitory to the cafeteria, Ulrich discovered several things about the newcomer. He learned that the insignia on Alan's shirt was the Japanese symbol for friendship, that he had studied both karate from his grandfather in Japan and tae-kwon-do from his uncle in South Korea, and that his eyes tend to change color with his emotions. All of this shattered the first impression that his looks gave him. He also learned very quickly to refrain from inquiring about his eye patch. They had just breached the subject of the schools scheduling when they arrived at the cafeteria.

They nearly walked into the last person of the lunch line: Cissi. She nearly told them off until she noticed she was merely 5 inches away from Ulrich's face. The complaint died in her throat.

"Hello, Ulrich!" she said enthusiastically.

"Hello, Cissi," replied Ulrich, who a little let down that she had to be right in front of them in the line. He promptly turned his back on her and continued the conversation with his new friend. He only turned back around when Alan pointed out the line that was moving forward. Eventually, they were interrupted to choose between soup and spaghetti. Then, they were free to walk over to their usual table. They got there to find Yumi and Odd already there, the latter having at least three forkfuls of noodles hanging out of his mouth and more hidden inside.

"Who dla hith-higer?" Odd mumbled through his stuffed mouth.

"Odd!" Yumi scolded.

"Alan, meet my friends: Yumi Ishiyama and Odd Della Robia." Each person rose and shook the newcomers hand when their respective names were said, Odd being mindful enough to swallow beforehand. "Guys, this is Alan Kimyōna. He just moved here from…"

"Japan?" Yumi guessed.

"Actually, Korea," Alan corrected, "but I was born in Japan. How did you guess?"

"Your last name in romanji tra-"

"…translates to 'weird'. Yes, I know that. Any more obvious questions or comments anyone would like to say to me?"

"Like the fact that you and Ulrich are welcome to sit down?" Odd asked innocently.

They all laughed as Alan and Ulrich sat down. Ulrich thought while Alan started eating/drinking his soup with a smile on his face, _I guess he has already been granted one of his wishes_.


	3. First Day At Kadic

"Ishiyama!"

"Here," Hiroki responded.

"Weber!"

"Here," answered Johnny.

"Kimie-una?"

"Kimyōna," Alan corrected, "and here."

"So you're the new kid, huh?" noted Jim.

"Obviously."

"You look worried about something. If you need to talk to someone a little more experienced, my door is always open. Why, you remind me of a guy I met when I moved to a college in Norway."

"And who was that person?" Hiroki prompted.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

It was a usual Monday morning when all of the seventh- graders started to laugh at Jim. Hiroki whispered a 'told you so' to Alan.

"Well, as you may already know," Jim started," I have been given the honor of organizing the school's Halloween party for tomorrow night, and I'm having you put up the decorations. You will find the pumpkins around back and the décor in boxes under the bleachers. I will need two of you to help me place the small stage. Go!" Jim blew the whistle.

Alan and Hiroki stood up as one and walked to the bleachers where they found several boxes of what seemed to be black and orange tinsel garland and a ladder. Five minutes later, Alan was balancing himself on the top of said ladder and hooking the garland to the ceiling. That is when the Voice chose to bother him.

_Can you dome a favor?_

Maybe, Alan responded. It depends on what it is.

_I'd like you to turn on a computer in the forest._

What's do I get out of it?

_You get to skip class._

Deal. "Mr. Morales? Does this garland go-WOAH!" Alan purposely mis-stepped and fell off of the ladder. Just before he landed, he curled up and somersaulted to land safely on his back, During this, he took out his phone and snapped it against the floor once. To others, it looked and sounded as if he had just broken something.

"Out of my way," yelled Jim.

"My arm!" Alan cried, curling his right arm close to him. His phone had already made it safely back to his pocket.

"Ishiyama, escort your friend to the infirmary before his arm gets too inflamed."

Alan gladly took Hiroki's proffered help in rising to his feet and limping to the door. Once outside, however, he stood up straight and did a couple of shoulder rolls. His friend was thouroughly impressed.

"Did you do that on purpose, just to get out of class?"

Alan nearly laughed. "Why else would I fall off of a 14-foot ladder and walk away unscathed." Without waiting for an answer, Alan pivoted on his heel and walked in the direction of the factory.

"Where are you going?" Hiroki asked.

"The forest. Wanna come?"

Hiroki suddenly looked frightened. "No, I'd rather stay here and play video games in my room."

"Huh, suit yourself." Alan left waved good bye to Hiroki and set off into the heart of the forest. He went down a manhole in the middle of a clearing, boarded through the sewers with a skateboard that he conveniently found lying by the ladder, climbed up onto a bridge, jumped down to the second floor of a factory and traveled down a little used elevator all by the guidance of the voice in his head.

What do we have here? Alan thought as the doors opened up to a large room. The only thing inside was a large computer. The buttons seemed to taunt him, wanting to be pressed.

"So, where is the 'on' switch."


	4. Jeremy's Worries

I'm awake. Nothing new. It's Monday morning. Did it have to be? I'm in bed. At least it's not my keyboard. There is a foldout bed and a stack of boxes across the room. Something isn't right.

Jeremy got out of bed and looked among the invading belongings. A single box sat open on the bed, revealing a pair of camouflage pants and a deep red T-shirt. In the bathroom, a toothbrush stood guard in a bag, protecting its fellow toiletries from Jeremy's prying eyes. After changing into cleaner clothes, Jeremy was about to leave. The only thing that stopped him was hard memories.

He was remembering a time when he would have checked his computer for signs of strange activity before even getting out of bed. He looked back at his computer, recalling the exact pitch of the alarm for when their enemy was on the move. He turned away, already hearing the sound again, as if nothing had changed.

"Wait a minute." Jeremy flinched back to look at his desktop. His screensaver had been blocked out by another symbol. One he only knew too well.

The genius practically flew to his desk chair. His fingers almost disappeared into a blur while Jeremy searched for any rhyme or reason for why this should be happening.

"No," He muttered to himself when his mind led him to the one conclusion that he was dreading. He quickly sent five small messages and ran out of his room. He collided with the opposing wall before successfully turning a complete 90 degrees.

His computer displayed his compact message before going to sleep.

|| X.A.N.A. ||

|| Meet at factory||


	5. Alan Enters Lyoko

"Thank you for letting me do this," said Alan, I still don't think it's possible, but neither is you being in my head."

_I just thought that you would want to remember what will happen soon._

"Is this legal?"

_Of course. I built it._

**Transfer Alan.** The computer announced as the column of brass opened up to reveal an alcove large enough to hold a mildly large man comfortably or two small people uncomfortably. Without hesitation, Alan walked inside. The door closed behind him and the floor spun him around to face it.

**Scanner, Alan.** A ring appeared around the circumference of the cylinder by his feet and traveled up to the top, emitting a laser at and through him.

**Virtualization.**

Air blew at him from below as his vision went black. He felt as if he were flying across vast distances without the worries or hassles that come from having a body. Too soon, the feeling ended with a light. This light took the form of a rectangle, like the end of a dark tunnel. It came rushing at him and engulfed him. This white light slowly split down the middle, making two touching rectangles that were only slightly different in shade. These divided into four, and then eight. Soon they were multiplying faster than could be timed, each becoming vibrant colors of green, brown and yellow, All of them assembling into a grand piece of artwork.

A forest.

Alan slowly became aware of his body and senses, including the sense of pain when he landed on his butt from an unfortunate 15-foot drop. He started rubbing dust off, glad that no one was around to see that.

"I love the costume you gave me, what inspired you on the theme?"

_It wasn't me, it was the supercomputer,_ the Voice responded.

"Is that the computer, too?"

_What?_

"Blocks on legs. They have an eye on each side- Hey, I've seen that symbol before."

_DODGE!_

Alan was warned just in time. He jumped straight up, narrowly avoiding 5 laser blasts. He landed to find himself surrounded on all sides.

"What do I do now?" Alan asked his Voice." Fight?"

_Run for the Waytower!_

"A what?"

The Bloks milled around in confusion. Their prey had never asked them questions before.

_It's a tall cylindrical tower, glowing either red or white._

A red Waytower seemed to leap into view as soon as Alan was filled in. "I see it!" He crouched, seemingly at ease. The Bloks took their chance and open fired. Alan leaped up and over the ring of Bloks. His cape unfurled behind him and transformed into two bat-like wings. He glided a ways before touching down in front of the tower. He glanced back at the Bloks, which had just realized that they had caught nothing but thin air, before walking through the wall.

The boy took deep breaths before he realized where he was. As he looked at his new surroundings, he began to feel weightless. Reality caught up with his senses and he started floating up towards the ceiling, if there was one. He smacked his head on a platform that seemed to block his way, and crawled his way onto it. A flickering screen greeted him.

"What do I do?" Alan asked aloud.

_Was this tower red when you entered it?_

"Yes."

_Place your hand on the screen,_ the Voice directed in an urgent tone.

Alan did what he was told. Nothing happened. Then, without warning, he felt an energy that was not his flow down his arm and into his hand. This kind of experience had only happened to him twice before. The Screen became active when it typed the word **Franz**. That soon disappeared to display the word **Code _**. Alan mysteriously knew what to do and typed the word **Lyoko**.

"Tower deactivated." Alan recited, as if he had said that line thousands of times over, as all the lights on the wall rushed down past the floor.


	6. Back To Normal

That's odd, Aelita thought when she arrived under the factory manhole, Odd was just leaving the lunchroom when I saw him, so why is his skateboard already here. Aelita had gotten Jeremy's message when she had grabbed her scooter. Logically, she would be the first Warrior here besides Jeremy. She dropped her mode of transportation to climb up the ladder and to the factory to find Jeremy already in his seat in front of the supercomputer.

"Hi, Jeremy," she said aloud, bringing herself to Jeremy's attention. "Where's Odd?"

"I don't know. I saw his board, but the ropes were still tied and he's not here now. If he came through the sewers, he didn't come to the factory."

"At least we're not the only ones confused," said Ulrich. He and Yumi had just exited the elevator. "So why did you call us here? I thought we had already deleted X.A.N.A."

"So did I, and I think he's still dead, but that only confuses me more. The Super scan on my desktop alerted me of an activated tower, but when I arrived here, it was not showing any signs of activity. So the only problem is: why is the computer on?"

"That is a problem," Yumi agreed.

"Especially because the ropes were still tied up when you got here," Aelita added.

The elevator whirred as it made its last delivery. When the doors opened up again, they revealed a very tired Odd, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

"Who took my board?" he panted.

"The same someone who turned on the supercomputer," answered Ulrich.

"In other words," Yumi interjected before Odd could blame Jeremy, "we don't know."

"Care to bring me up to speed?"

"Certainly," Jeremy obliged," Last time we left the factory, the computer was turned off and the ropes were tied up. Today, my Super Scan told me that a Waytower was activated. When I got here, the ropes were still tied, the computer was on and the activated tower was nowhere to be seen. Now we are all sitting here wondering what the heck just happened."

"So back to normal, then?"

Awkward laughter filled the room, becoming more hollow the longer it echoed. Soon, the laughter had died down and they stood staring at each other, waiting for a suggestion upon what they should do next.

Ulrich was the first to speak. "Since Lyoko is back up and Einstein can't find anything from his chair, why don't we take a tour, for old times sake?"

Everyone was taken aback when he said that. Not a soul had imagined going back into Lyoko since they had turned it off. This new idea had them thinking about any consequences they could run into. Apparently, none could be thought of. Sounds of ascension rose from everyone and they all started towards the scanner room. Aelita followed them for a second and turned back to Jeremy, who was still in his seat, readying the scanners for virtualization. He directed the others into Lyoko and then turned to Aelita.

"Go on. I thought you wanted to go to Lyoko?"

"Come with us," said Aelita.

"No thank you," said Jeremy, "I don't want to cause bad luck. Every time I try, something bad happens."

"Do it anyway. How bad could your outfit be?" Aelita asked, guessing correctly that it wasn't X.A.N.A. that scared him.

"Fine, but only this once." At that, Jeremy plugged in the commands for autovirtualization and let Aelita lead him away from his desk.


	7. Allies

Alan walked out of the tower and almost immediately was forced to dive behind some rocks. The Bloks were back and open firing on him.

"Why are they trying to kill me, again?" Alan asked.

_Because they are servants of X.A.N.A._

"And X.A.N.A. is a multi-agent program that wants to take over the world?"

_Correct._

"Wasn't he destroyed by those you call the Lyoko Warriors?"

_Apparently not._

"How do I kill those things?"

_To put it simply, there is a reason X.A.N.A.'s symbol looks like a target._

Alan looked around his pile of rocks to see two of the Bloks circling around. "How do I fight them?" he asked before leaping to safety behind another pile of rocks.

_You …_

The Voice was interrupted by a sound Alan had never heard before. He glanced over the rocks to see three blue masses of code appear above the ring of his pursuers. These forms slowly changed color and became people, who fell from the air onto their knees. As one they all stood up, ready to fight.

Do I just let them do it? thought Alan.

_Who?_

I'll just show you. Alan took off his eye patch to let it hang around his neck. He could have sworn that he heard and audible gasp from his Voice.

_The Lyoko Warriors!_

The first one, the one nearest him, was wearing a yellow and black jumpsuit with some red highlights. He wore a greenish gray belt and something on his back that he couldn't assess at his current angle. A yellow headband that had some meaningless symbol on the front was tied around his head. He had brown hair, but his face was obscured by the Blok in front of him.

Another Blok was hiding the face of another warrior, but this one's outfit was more… comical. This one had a jumpsuit in various shades of purple, gray shoulder pads, and a gray belt. He could have been taken for someone who wanted to fight but was against wearing camo, were it not for the added accessories of cat ears, tail, and forepaws. The hair reminded Alan of Odd, back at the school, but I banished the thought. Odd wouldn't fight in a computer. He'd laugh at the notion of being able to be virtualized.

The third had her back to Alan, but he could still tell that she was a girl, not because of the longer hair style or the outfit color, but her demeanor. Anyone would be surprised how differently girls and boys held themselves, no matter how feminine or masculine the subject is, if that person looked close enough. This girl wore a jumpsuit of magenta and red violet. Other details couldn't be determined from his nearly unobstructed view of her back.

Two more people virtualized inside the clear area between the other three. One, a girl who wore a jumpsuit colored hot pink and pale pink and a head of hair the pink that fell between the shades of her uniform, landed on her feet, while her companion landed on his butt.

He looks ridiculous, Alan thinks to himself.

_He's new, but the pink-haired girl is my daughter, Aelita._

As Alan contemplates that jumpsuits are in fashion in the digital world, the Lyoko Warriors make their move. Almost as one, the group draws its weapons. The guy pulls two katanas from the crossed sheaths on his back, fans appear in the girl's hands, and the purple cat readies his paws as if they were dart guns. Even Aelita, the most 'delicate' of them all generates a sphere of pink energy between her open hands. Alan had no doubt that, were he hit with one of those, it would feel as if he were struck by thousands of volts of electricity. Mr. Ridiculous just stood back and cowered.

I'll just let them take care of the problem, thought Alan as he sat back down behind his rock pile. They know what they're doing.


	8. The Eye

The Bloks were confused. That much was obvious. Normally, X.A.N.A.'s monsters would have already started shooting, but this set seemed focused on the pile of rocks by the Waytower. They seemed to be being ordered to examine it but were remembering older orders or something. Whatever the cause, their hesitation made their numbers dwindle from five to one in a single volley.

"I knew I shouldn't have come," stated Jeremy.

"Why is that?" asked Odd. We can protect you from anything X.A.N.A. throws at us, and you can learn to fight afterwards."

Maybe it's because he didn't want Aelita to see his Lyoko apparel," said Ulrich.

"No," Yumi corrected, "It's because he's afraid of getting devirtualized the hard way."

"Thank you for summing that up," Jeremy said blandly.

"Your welcome," they all chimed.

The remaining Blok looked at each of them once, turned and scuttled off to the rock pile, apparently finding it a bigger problem than five people ready to delete it.

"Where are you going?" Odd yelled after it.

"Maybe it's looking for something," said Ulrich.

"Or someone," Yumi corrected.

The Blok apparently found what it was looking for, because it fired to lasers behind the rocks. One missed, but the other ricochet straight up.

"It found something," said Aelita. No sooner had she spoken, a dark blur flew from behind the rocks and started circling in the air. The Blok followed it with its lasers, but it could not keep up with the shadow. Whatever it was, it was fast. About five tense seconds later, the Blok gave up on shooting the blur from the sky, focused on Aelita, and shot a single laser. This one was a reddish orange with a turquoise energy field around it. Aelita didn't have time to react before it came zooming at her.

But the shadow did. It swooped down in front of Aelita and into harm's way. The laser hit his shoulder, with an audible crack. The person, now revealed as what he was, looked up into Aelita's eyes before he devirtualized.

Aelita was stunned. She couldn't think straight. She got a good look at his face, but the only thing she remembered were his eyes. One was a deep red, full of pain. The other was a pale blue that had glowed with intensity. But the most interesting part, the part that stuck in her mind, was the blue eye. It didn't have the normal iris and pupil. Those were replaced by a circle within a circle. Three prongs extend up from the outer circle, while a fourth points down. This symbol could be found inside every Waytower in Lyoko, as well as the floor of the computer room. That sign meant her father was alive.

Aelita was thinking many things at once, forgotten dreams, new ideas, but most of all, hope. Hope that she could meet her father again.

"aaAEEellLIIITTtaaa", said a voice. "AaeELLiittAA. AELita, wake up." It was Odd. He was waving his hand over her face. She blinked, telling them that she was conscious. "Good, you're alive."

"You scared us," said Yumi as Aelita picked herself off the ground. She had fainted somehow. Maybe it was the danger and safety switching twice in nearly the blink of an eye. All she knew was that she owed the boy.

"What was that?" asked Jeremy. He looked at Aelita, hoping that she would know.

"It was a person."

"Who?" asked Ulrich.

"I don't know, I only saw his eyes. One was blood red," Aelita explained, "while one was sky blue. But the weird part was that the blue eye wasn't an ordinary eye. It was the eye of X.A.N.A., only reversed."

Her friends looked at her, dumbfounded. Jeremy spoke up. "Why would your father want to possess someone?" Aelita smiled. She had come to the same conclusion.

They talked about that for a few minutes, passing possible reasons back and forth and sharing ideas on how he may have survived. Then, Jeremy devirtualized unexpectedly.

"Einstein!" Ulrich and Odd yelled while the girls called, "Jeremy!"

A minute later, they all heard Jeremy over the intercom. "_I'm all right_"

Jeremy devirtualized all of them and pointed out something new. He had found a trail of blood headed from one of the scanners, up the ladder, and to the elevator.

"I could still hear it humming when I got up here," he said.

I wonder who it was," said Yumi. "From the amount of blood, I'd say he's hurt badly."

"You don't see what this means. X.A.N.A. has figured out how to cause lasting damage in the real world." Jeremy paused to let this sink in. "We have to be more careful in Lyoko from now on."

The gathering continued to talk about their new complications for another ten minutes, then deemed it time to head back to the school. Dinner was nearly over, and Odd was, well, Odd. When they got back in the sewers, he cried out, "My board's gone again."

They traveled through the sewers, Odd doing his best to keep up on foot. The blood drops had spread out a lot, as if whoever made them was going three times faster than earlier. At the end, they found he found a pleasant surprise. His skateboard was leaning up against the wall with a bag tied to a wheel. When Odd opened it he found a blood-stained note that read, _I rented it_, along with some change. When Odd counted it out, it was enough for two meals. They went up the ladder and back into their old lives, the one where they sneak out of class often.

Almost everything was back to normal.


	9. Chicken with a Side of Suspicion

Jeremy walked to his door and unlocked it with the key he always kept in his wallet. He walked in, narrowly dodging a cardboard box, and put his laptop down on the desk. As he was about to walk out of the room, he sensed eyes on him. He saw a boy on the fold-out bed, with dark red hair and an eye patch.

"Who are you?"

The kid raised an eyebrow. "I'm your new roommate."

Jeremy let out a hollow laugh. "No. Seriously, who are you?"

"Ulrich didn't tell you?"

"No. You know Ulrich?"

"Yeah. I'm Alan Kimyōna, I just moved here from Korea, You may consider me crazy, and you will avoid a lot of frustration if you don't ask about the eye patch."

Jeremy was shocked that this person was so friendly. "Okay. I'm Jeremy Belpois, I've lived here for a while, I originally requested a single room, and you can avoid a lot of frustration by not touching my stuff."

Alan smiled. "Please don't try to copy me. You won't be able to pull it off." He sat up slowly and seemed to be nursing his left arm. "Would you like to go to dinner?"

"Sure," Jeremy responded. He couldn't keep his eyes off Alan's arm. The sleeve had been torn off to allow somebody access to his shoulder. A clean white bandage had been wrapped tightly over it, but white it was no longer. Most of the material had been stained red with blood. This could have been thought of as being well taken care of, except there was more to it. Alan had apparently positioned five dowel rods on his arm where they completely surrounded the injury, then taped them possibly tighter than the bandage itself. He had covered those with more gauze, bit he could still see the tips sticking up near his shoulder and down about halfway to his elbow.

Alan put a jacket on over the top of the dressings, being careful not to snag anything. Jeremy's focus was broken and he remembered what was going on.

"Is that some kind of splint?"

Alan nodded. "It's a special kind of splint that replaces the durability of the bone inside. I can still move it around, feeling minimal pain from my broken shoulder." To prove his point, he did a couple of shoulder rolls, and hardly winced.

They were already halfway to the lunch room. "How did you break your arm?"

"I fell off a 14-foot ladder while helping Jim with his Halloween decorating." Jeremy noticed that Alan said this with a tone that was not too honest, as to reveal a skillful liar, but enough. His impression was that that may not be the complete truth, but it was a vaguely accurate summary. Like a little child not telling its mother **how** it broke the vase. Jeremy frowned. He thought that his new friend may have been the one in Lyoko.

They arrived in the lunchroom. Jeremy located his friends: Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich were at their usual table, Aelita was about 9 people in front of them, and William was nowhere to be found. He had moved to another school, his dad fed up with the inconveniences Mr. Delmas had put them through. They accused him of not knowing where their son was for weeks on end, even though William had purposefully evaded his principal.

Jeremy looked at Alan and caught him staring in the direction of Aelita. He almost told him that yes, her hair is naturally that color when both of their attentions were drawn to Hiroki, who was behind them in line.

"I haven't seen you since P.E., and you said you'd tell me what you found in the forest." This is where Jeremy becomes oblivious to everything but Alan and Hiroki. "That is what the voice in your head told you to do, right?"

"Yeah, I was in the forest." Alan glanced away for a moment, looking in the general direction of our table.

"So what did you find?" Hiroki prompted again.

Alan didn't miss a beat. "Trees."

Both Jeremy and Hiroki chuckle, but the former was thinking about what had just been revealed. If Alan was in the forest, could he have seen us?

The line moved forward to let the group get their dinner, breaded chicken strips and a potato, and they went to their respective tables. Aelita had beaten them to the table, and jumped in surprise when she saw Alan, who rolled his eyes. Ulrich tried to fix the situation. "Hey, Alan, have I introduced you to –"

"Aelita?" he asked. Odd made a strange noise at Alan, but, then again, what noise doesn't sound strange coming through at least 3 full chicken strips. Alan took this as a 'How-?' and answered to Odd, "She's the only person that wasn't here at lunch when Ulrich told me that an Aelita wasn't here." That contented Odd. They continued their meal in silence, which was strange. Odd normally breaks the ice by stuffing more food into his mouth and joking about a hinged jaw. There was enough tension in at the table that you could have cut it with a butter knife.

Alan opened his one eye as wide as it could go, a shadow of a smirk on his face. That would have been weird, had it not made Aelita, who had been staring into it, turn away with a flush. Alan then proceeded to inhale his food faster than Odd could chew the mouthful that he had.

"I think that now I'm done, I should leave and let you resume talking." Alan picked up his tray and walked away.

Almost as soon as he walked out of the door, conversation continued at the table.

"His eye was a medium gray, like a ring of steel," Aelita started.

"How could that be possible?" Odd asked. "His eyes were the color of a storm cloud yesterday."

Ulrich thought for a bit. "He said that his eye changes color sometimes."

"Do you think he might be the one we saw…" Yumi didn't have to finish that sentence.

"No, he broke his arm falling off a ladder in gym," said Jeremy. "Halloween decorations."

"I think it's him, but I don't know how he did it," Ulrich said. "If he broke his arm when he fell off a ladder, how would he have been in Lyoko?"

Jeremy realized something. "Hiroki said that he skipped P.E. to explore the forest, and something about a voice in his head." That got everyone's attention. "But how could he have done that if he had broken his arm?" The group thought for a bit, but gave up trying to put the puzzle together.

"I know what we need to do," said Odd.

Ulrich reeled. "What? You have a plan before Einstein does?"

"No, not a plan. A goal. We need to get his eye patch off. That way we can tell for certain."

"How?" asked Yumi. "If we ask him, he'll dodge the question saying his parents forbade him. If we try to trick him, he won't trust us anymore. If he is that guy, we don't want him against us."

"We take it off ourselves."

The group stared at Jeremy. "How?" Ulrich asked at the same time Yumi said "Oh".

"Weren't you saying that he knew karate and tae-kwon-do?"

Ulrich saw the light bulb above his girlfriend's head and felt like his was broken. "I don't get what you're saying."

"We spar him."

"Oh," was his short, embarrassed acknowledgement.


End file.
